The Idea Of Murder
by Thornrose270
Summary: For the first time in a long time, somepony has realized that killing another on purpose is a possibility. The spirit of harmony has taken notice and realizes Equestria is not ready to deal with this in way of mind or justice, The spirit will just have to call on another source for help.
1. Chapter 1

The ponies of Equestria were no stranger to villainy, new villains were always attacking Equestria, trying to take their home. But other than these beings, not much in the way of violence or crime occurred in the utopia. Minor bullying, theft once in a while, maybe even the odd plagiarism. However, every single occurrence of any sort of crime was few and far between, and there was one sort of crime not even the major villains ever even considered. All they wanted was control, power. Not one would ever consider this.

The world itself sensed it, the thought entering some pony's head. The very thought shook the spirit of harmony to it's core. It searched for the source, but it couldn't find it, it had been since the ancient pony tribes that it had had to deal with this, and ponies are very protective of negative thoughts, keeping them from every pony, making the source difficult to pinpoint.

The negative force grew stronger, turning from a fleeting realization into a real possibility, the spirit began to panic, the other ponies in this world weren't ready for this. None of them would be able to do anything, and the repercussions would be too extreme. The spirit had to do something! If this pony's thought became a reality, that would realize the possibility to other minds, causing the peace to break. Equestria is not ready for that, not even the pony sisters would be able to handle it.

Then, a possibility started to form in harmony's mind, there were other places she could seek help from, the spirit would simply have to ask for help from someone who could handle it, someone who could keep the calamity from spreading very far, who could enact justice like no equestrian knew how. And the spirit had just the being in mind.


	2. Chapter 2

The day had been rather boring so far, nothing decidedly interesting had happened. It was just a normal weekday. Conan yawned and turned the page in his book, the school day was almost over, maybe something would happen after the day ended, but the only thing he had planned was to play soccer with the Detective Boys, which he did like more than some of the other activities they chose.

"Conan! Are you listening?" said an annoyed voice from in front of him. Conan looked up to see Mitsuhiko, looking as annoyed as he sounded.

"sorry..." Conan said, yawning again.

"We were talking about the cop cars in front of the school, I thought you might know why they're here." Mitsuhiko said, sounding less annoyed now. Conan looked over his shoulder through the window, Mitsuhiko was right, three cop cars were out front, and police were running around, the other three Detective Boys were crowded around the window, looking at what was going on.

"Do you know what happened?" Conan said, approaching the window as well.

"Not a clue." Replied Haibara, who was getting up to walk to the door. "why don't we find out?" the five children (or three children and two that looked like children) ran outside to see what the fuss was. The children were, of course, followed by their teacher, who was trying to get them to go back to class. She stopped trying though when they got outside and saw her boyfriend, who happened to be a police inspector.

"Shiratori Keibu!" the teacher, Sumiko Kobayashi called out, seeing him talking to a few other familiar officers.

"Takagi Keiji! Sato Keiji!" Ayumi and the other kids ran over to them. "what are you all doing here?"

"oh, it's you guys!" Takagi said as they approached. "well, actually, two bodies were discovered in the house across the street, the couple who lived there."

"eh?" The three actual children chorused. Conan had already slipped away to investigate the corpses.

After several hours and agonizing hint dropping, the case was solved. Conan sighed and walked a few steps behind the rest of the Detective Boys, who were still chattering excitedly about the case. Haibara walked next to him, smirking at his exhaustion.

"what?" Conan asked her, becoming annoyed.

"oh, nothing!" she said, but erasing the smirk from her face nonetheless. The children had nearly reached the professor's house when something odd happened. As the children were passing an alley, Conan heard a strange sound, a sort of, sparkly clinking? Can you describe a sound as sparkly? But Conan found that his description of the noise was completely accurate. Long tendrils of a crystalline substance were snaking out of a dark hole in the back of the alley, the hole was growing larger as the tendrils got longer.

The Detective Boys stood rooted to the spot. In all their days of chasing murderers and thieves, they had never seen something that had scared them so much. Everything that had happened to them in the past had at least followed the laws of physics and nature, but this? What was this? None of them had a clue.

A large amount of sparkling mist poured out of the hole, the tendrils had extended around the Detective boys now, Genta had come to his senses and tried to escape, but the crystals grabbed him by the ankle and pulled him back, Ayumi started to cry, and Mitsuhiko and Haibara rushed to comfort her. Conan was about to rush to Ayumi as well, when he stopped, and turned. Something was emerging from the hole.

The being was as glittery as the root like crystals surrounding them, she had purple skin, and darker purple hair, with a bright pink streak running down it. By far the strangest details were the wings and the horn, she had large bird-like wings extending from her shoulders, along with a single horn protruding from her forehead, the horn was shining brighter than the rest of her.

"Greetings, detective." the being said, her voice was monotone, but soft, as if she was new to the concept of emotions. Conan just stood there, speechless, along with the other four children.

"It seems your skills were just as great as I had heard." She said, in her strange, almost-emotion voice.

"who are you?" Conan had finally come to what little sense he had left, and managed to choke out the question.

"It does not matter. All that matters is that we require your assistance." The situation was becoming more and more vexing as it progressed, and the other children just stood there, staring at this being, one who refused to tell them who she was, or what was going on. Ayumi whimpered.

"Who is we?" Conan asked hesitantly.

"Equestria, of course." she answered evenly.

"what do you need my help with?" Conan used even more caution this time, he didn't recognize the word she had used, but it didn't look like she was lying, not that Conan was sure he would be able to tell if she was lying if she actually was.

"A problem." she replied easily, being infuriatingly vague.

"If I don't know what the problem is, I can't help you." Conan said, becoming more annoyed and wary as time passed.

"you can, and you will." her voice carried a note of odd finality in it, but it had only just registered when the crystal tendrils started moving again. They twisted and curled, grabbing the children by all of their limbs at once, rendering Conan unable to use his watch or shoes. After sufficiently restraining Conan, the crystals knocked him of his feet, and dragged him toward the hole. The sparkling woman smiled, then turned around and walked into the hole after Conan, the other Detective Boys strained helplessly as the tendrils encased them.

The light had soon faded from Conan's vision as he was dragged down the tunnel, he could still hear the foot steps of the glowing woman, but he could no longer see her glow. Then all at once, the sound stopped. The movement stopped. A great flash of light blinded him, he felt a falling sensation, stars appeared in the darkness, the night sky was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

Starlight needed more sleep than she got. Twilight still had her doing periodic friendship lessons, she was the school of friendship's only counselor, and along with that, hanging out with friends was part of the job description. Her days had already been packed before Twilight dropped the bomb that she would be taking over as principal, she still had her counselor duties, but now she had to teach and run the school as well. The amount of sleep she got each night was steadily declining.

Such was the stress in her life that quiet, calm moments like these were a great part of her day. She still needed alone time after all, right? Starlight was taking a much needed stroll through Everfree Forest, a lovely place really, she didn't understand how the citizens of Ponyville had been afraid of it for so long.

Last night, Starlight had seen a shooting star. She had wished for life to get easier, but she knew such a wish was impossible to grant, life was the way it was, and if it changed anytime soon, Starlight had an ominous feeling it might be for the worse.

Starlight had gotten lost in her thoughts, and almost fell into a hole in the middle of the path.

"wha? Since when was this here…?wha...?" Starlight gasped. She was standing at the edge what she had initially thought had been just a hole, in actuality however, it was a crater several hops across, but the most shocking thing was the pony in the middle. A small unicorn colt was lying in the bottom of the crater, he had a dirty, baby blue coat and a dark navy mane. He was also wearing broken glasses several sizes to large for him.

Starlight rushed down the side of the crater to the colt's side, she quickly assessed his injuries (not that bad, actually) and sent a beacon to twilight, asking for assistance. The colt was unconscious, but there was no sign of a major head injury, the only injuries he had were small scratches. Unusual for somepony who had created a crater this big, from what Starlight could tell, it was caused by an impact, not a magic surge. His lack of injuries seemed like a miracle, really.

Twilight arrived before too long, along with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy.

"oh, gosh! Is he OK?" Fluttershy exclaimed as she gently flew down to Starlight and the colt.

"he's fine, I think." said Starlight, her quiet morning had very quickly evaporated. Guess she was right about things getting worse.

"Anyway, we should get him checked out at the Ponyville hospital, his injuries might be worse than they appear." Twilight said, authority in her voice. The other four mares nodded and Starlight levitated the colt along.

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"is anything wrong, Nurse Redheart?" Starlight asked the nurse.

"Not anything we can see, he just appears to be unconscious." Nurse Redheart said, obviously thinking about something. "there is one concerning thing though, no one knows him. Not one pony has ever seen him before."

"That is concerning..." Starlight trailed off. "Can I see him now?"

"I don't see why not." Nurse Redheart smiled before trotting off to see another patient. Starlight pushed open the door to see the colt, looking a lot cleaner now, lying peacefully on a bed, his glasses had been repaired and placed on the bedside table. Starlight wondered where he had come from, if what Nurse Redheart had said was true, then the efforts of the others (mane 6) had been in vain, they had gone out to try to find somepony who knew the colt, apparently with no luck. How far away from home was he? Was anypony looking for him? She had lots of questions, and no answer.

Starlight was forced out of her musings by a small movement. The colt's eyes twitched, before opening. He groaned and closed his eyes again. Starlight's eyes widened, he was waking up!

"are you OK?" she asked, concerned. The colts eyes opened again, but when he saw Starlight, his eyes grew large, all signs of fatigue gone.

"what in the…?" he whispered. Then he looked down at himself, and his eyes grew even larger. "WHAT?" he shouted, he jumped to his hooves and started hyperventilating.

"Calm down! you're OK!" Starlight tried to reason with him, but he just stared at her.

"This cannot be happening." he muttered, probably to himself. Starlight was very worried at this point, the poor colt was shivering, he was in a defensive position, and he was edging toward the door. Starlight supposed this might be normal for waking up in a strange place, with strange ponies, but it still worried her. She used magic to levitate his glasses onto his face, and he seemed to calm down a bit.

"see? OK!" Starlight said with a smile. The colt's eyes were still huge, but he wasn't hyperventilating anymore. "so, what's your name?" Starlight smiled again.

"Conan" what a strange name…

"I'm Starlight, nice to meet you!"

"Sure." was the only answer. Starlight's smile faltered, she could already tell this was going to be hard…

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Starlight hoped Twilight would be back sooner rather than later, she was still looking for anypony who knew Conan, and in the mean time, there was no reason to keep him at the hospital, so Starlight had brought him back to the school. From the way introductions had gone, she thought she might like to enroll him in the school, his later actions only strengthened this desire, it was obvious he needed some lessons.

Everypony he met, he would stare at them critically, he was wary of everypony, including Starlight.

He didn't talk much at all, and kept looking around anxiously. Other than that, he seemed fine. Well, except for one thing... He looked at absolutely everything he saw with wonder. The students, the castle, and the classes (what he saw of them). Starlight thought this was normal. New ponies usually looked at these things with as much wonder as he did, they were unusual after all, but the thing that had worried Starlight was his reaction to her magic. The only thing she had done was teleport some scrolls to her she needed for lesson plans, and he had freaked out, backing against the wall and glaring at her horn, like it had offended him!

"How did you do that?" he said, sounding astonished.

"You mean my magic?" Starlight was confused, had Conan never seen a unicorn use their horn before? That didn't make sense, he was a unicorn himself after all…

"yeah. That." he said, after hesitating for longer than Starlight thought was necessary. Starlight was kinda disturbed, but she didn't do anything about it, she had work to do after all.

"Hey Conan, do you wanna watch me teach?" Starlight asked, maybe this way, she could get Conan to talk to her more.

"What does this school teach anyway?" Conan asked, without giving an answer, Starlight noted. She hadn't had time earlier to really tell him anything, she had lost a lot of time to work on lesson plans this morning because she was waiting for Conan to wake up in the hospital.

"Oh, It's a school of friendship! The only one of it's kind." Starlight beamed proudly. Conan raised an eyebrow.

"A school for learning how to be friends?" he said, he obviously didn't believe her.

"Yup! I bet you'll believe me if you come to my lesson!" She said, still smiling.Conan may think it's a silly idea now, a lot of ponies did, but they all discovered how great an idea it was, and Conan would too! Starlight thought.

"why not." he sighed. Starlight grinned. She gathered the materials she would need and headed off toward the classroom.

Since every teacher in the school was absent, Starlight was holding one big combined class today. It consisted of the usual things each teacher included, plus a little extra starlight always added into her lessons. The main topic today was usually a boring one: Ancient Friendships Of Equestria. All the students usually dozed off in this class, but today Starlight was going to have them put on an impromptu performance of the story they were learning, She was sure everypony was going to love it.

"OK class, as you have been told, Princess Twilight and her friends are away for today, so I will be teaching Ancient Friendships Of Equestria. But I have a twist! We will all be playing the roles in the story, should be fun, right?" The students looked excited, whispers rose up about what the roles were going to be, and what kind of part they would like, but everyone hushed a bit when one student asked,

"Professor, who's that?" the being who had spoken up was Smolder, the school's only dragon student. She was of course pointing to Conan, who just stared at her.

"Oh, he's Conan. he's going to be observing our class today, please welcome him." Starlight introduced him. Smolder just tilted her head before sitting back down.

The class carried on for several hours, during that time, there was lots of laughter, mistakes, and fun. Conan sat next to Starlight and watched. Whenever Starlight looked down at him, she shuddered slightly, there was something about his eyes, he was watching so intensely, there was emotion there too, but even Starlight, who prided herself as an expert of emotions, (she was the guidance counselor after all) couldn't identify what it was.

Eventually, class ended, a welcome feeling for most, a bittersweet feeling to others. Smolder came up to Conan after most other students had left, her friends promising to meet up later.

"So, who are you?" she asked, straight to the point. Conan looked puzzled for a second before resuming his cold stare once again.

"what do you mean? Starlight told everyone who I was at the beginning of class." he said, even more cautious than when he had been speaking to Starlight. She couldn't blame him, if this was his first time meeting a dragon, anypony would understand.

"No, she told everyone your name. That tells us nothing, except that you have a weird name." Smolder returned easily.

"Smolder..." Starlight sighed. Smolder could be one of the more… headstrong students. Having come from a dragon family, Smolder was even less accustomed to friendship than the other students.

"I'm aware." Conan stated, not sounding offended at all.

"Actually, Conan is the reason the rest of the professors aren't here today." Starlight started. Smolder raised an eyebrow, silently asking for her to continue. "he fell out of the sky last night, and no pony seems to know him. The others are out looking for anypony who might know him."

"Then why not just ask him?" Smolder asked, pointedly looking at Conan.

"I have, he's just being vague." Starlight glared at Conan too, who just shrugged unapologetically. Starlight had actually asked him about ponies he knew, he said he didn't know anypony, which made no sense. When she had asked about where he came from, he had shrugged like he just did. The only thing he really told them was his name.

"why not take him to the Crusaders? They can talk to anyone! Plus, he has no cutie mark, so they would probably jump at the chance." Smolder suggested. Starlight thought about it, that might actually help, maybe talking to ponies his own age would make him open up.

"who're the Crusaders?" Conan asked, but at that moment, a purple magic aura surrounded the doors, pushing them open to reveal the princess of friendship, and her five best friends.

"Twilight!" Starlight called, running over to her teacher. They had a quick greeting before turning to look at Conan, who had gotten ten times more defensive looking since the doors had opened.

"So he is awake!" Twilight smiled and trotted over to him. His eyes narrowed as she approached.

"Everypony, meet Conan!" Starlight announced. Conan glared at Twilight, who took notice of his expression. Twilight frowned and turned to Starlight.

"Is he always like this?" she asked, somewhat concerned. Starlight frowned as well and shook her head. The forgotten Smolder cleared her throat.

"We were talking about taking him to the Crusaders, unless you found something?"

"Oh, right. We ended up talking to a lot of ponies, but no one had ever heard of a pony fitting his description, much less knew him." Twilight said sounding kinda down.

"So, can I take him to the Crusaders?" Smolder said, sounding almost bored.

"of course, sorry about this, Smolder!" Starlight said.

"Like I asked earlier, who are the Crusaders?" Conan was still glaring at Twilight, a fact that made her squirm.

"Someponies who can hopefully help us out!" Smolder said, sounding mischievous. Conan sighed and made his way out the door after Smolder, who had just left.

"He seemed mad at me..." Twilight said, sounding guilty.

"I couldn't guess why, he's been relatively calm and happy since waking up." Starlight walked over to Twilight. "well, except for a few odd things… "

"Like what, darling?" Asked Rarity.

"well…" Starlight explained his reaction upon waking up, his actions when other ponies tried to talk to him, and strangest of all, his reaction to her spell. Everypony in the room was looking rather concerned by the end of it, especially about the last story.

"It's almost like he's never met a pony before." Rainbow Dash commented.

"That reminds me, when I asked him about the ponies he knew, he just said he didn't know any_pony._ He didn't say anything about other beings."

"what other beings would he know? From what you told us, he didn't seem to recognize any of the students either." Twilight noted.

"hmmm yeah, you're right. However, what other conclusion can we come to? We know next to nothing about the guy." Starlight said, everyone was deep in thought when they heard a voice they all knew too well say

"Well I might have an idea!"


	4. Chapter 4

Conan noticed several things immediately after waking up, first, he was in a hospital, second, a strange pinkish purple horse thing was standing over him, and third, he was also a strange horse thing. The events which landed him in this strange situation caught up with him. Conan started to panic. Not much made him panic, but he supposed being ripped from your reality counted in that category.

He sprang out of the bed and tried to get his bearings. This was obviously real, so he wasn't going to waste time with the 'this is a dream!' thing. He knew that purple lady had come from this place, seeing as the horn he had noticed on her head was also on the pinkish horse who was talking to him. She had said that 'Equestria' needed help, so for now it was safe to assume that this place was Equestria. He didn't actually know much else than that, other than the fact he was no longer human, of course, or that Equestrian was inhabited by equines. Who knew.

Conan was vaguely aware that the horse had just put his glasses on him, he left his thoughts to look at it. He guessed this one was female, a conclusion strengthened when she talked.

"see? OK!" she said, smiling. "so, what's your name?" she asked, still smiling. Conan could tell she was concerned, she was just smiling to make him feel better.

"Conan." was all he said. He wasn't sure if he could trust her, he still knew next to nothing about this place after all.

"I'm Starlight, nice to meet you!"

"Sure" he said, what a weird name, she was a talking horse though, so who was he to judge?

Starlight suddenly seemed to notice the clock on the wall above Conan and panicked slightly, saying things about being behind schedule and classes. She rushed Conan out of the room and checked him out of the hospital.

"Follow me, OK?" was all she really said before trotting off down a strangely greenish-gray dirt road. Conan followed her because he didn't know where else he would go. Despite her urgency, many other horses stopped her on her way to talk and gossip, Conan learned quite a lot from these snipets of conversation, including the correct term for these beings: Pony. These ponies filled the role here that humans filled on earth, Conan didn't recognize a few terms, but most of the conversations seemed like normal life stuff, and from the looks of it, Starlight worked at some sort of school.

One thing Conan was lost on however, was those marks. They almost looked like tattoos, or dye, but everypony had one, and all of them were different. Another thing was that most of the deductions Conan made about the ponies were somehow reflected in the tattoo on their flank, ponies like Starlight being the exception. The only thing Conan could tell about her mark was that it reflected her name, other than that, it was just a star, and some weird blue-green squiggles.

They soon arrived at a massive purple building unlike any other that Conan had seen in the town, the only other building that looked like it was the building adjacent to it, but that one looked more like a tree, and was made out of crystal, not stone. Starlight was unfazed by the building's grandeur and walked right inside, Conan hurried after her, it would be probably be easy to get lost without her. Conan immediately saw that this was the school Starlight worked at, students rushed around, chatted, and laughed. Conan's idea of ponies being the superior species in this world was questioned as soon as he saw this scene however, not only ponies were in these halls, some of the beings Conan could name, others, he was lost. He saw a dragon, a yak, and what he guessed was a griffin.

Starlight ignored the happenings of the halls and headed straight for the administration offices, into a room marked 'Guidance Counselor'. She began rifling through papers on her desk, looking disappointed and straightening again. The horn jutting out of her forehead was surrounded by a turquoise aura. Conan tensed, seeing the aura, what was that? Then Conan heard a small pop, and several scrolls appeared floating in the air, surrounded by the same aura as Starlight's horn. He leaped back in surprise, any of the basic physics laws should have prevented this from happening, unless she somehow opened a tiny, precise wormhole, which would have it's own complications.

"How did you do that?" Conan asked, bewildered. He had refrained from asking any questions in order to keep from standing out more than he already did, randomly falling from the sky after all. Starlight gave him an odd look. Obviously whatever this was was completely normal, and Conan knew nothing about it.

"You mean my magic?" Starlight looked confused. Yup. Magic. Why not? Now instead of just pink talking ponies, they were **magical** pink talking ponies. And Conan was the weird, oblivious foal that had fallen from the sky. Great.

"Yeah, that." Conan said, he knew he had paused for too long, but the weight of his situation was starting to hit him in force.

"Hey, Conan, do you wanna watch me teach?" Starlight looked hopeful. Wait, wasn't Starlight the counselor? If she did teach, what subject?

"What does this school teach anyway?" He evaded the question.

"Oh, it's a school of friendship! The only one of it's kind." Starlight smiled, obviously proud of this fact. Conan was skeptical, why would you need to go to school just to learn how to be a friend? Even if you were socially awkward, you might just join an after-school club or something, you don't need a whole school for the subject. Where did the ponies (and others) learn core subjects? Math, science, or magic, if that's something taught in schools.

"A school for learning how to be friends?" Conan asked for clarification, sounding unintentionally dubious. (though he was)

"Yup! I bet you'll believe me if you come to my lesson!" Conan had nothing else he could really do alone without even knowing which laws of physics applied to this world, he might even learn something, this was a school after all.

"why not." Conan sighed, it might be his only option, but he wasn't that excited about a lesson on friendship from magic ponies.

The class Conan was going to be observing was Ancient Friendships Of Equestria, so Conan was right about the country's name.

"OK class, as you have been told, Princess Twilight and her friends are away for today, so I will be teaching Ancient Friendships Of Equestria." Starlight talked about how she would make the class fun or something like that, but Conan wasn't listening, he was looking at the students. He saw a lot of variety among them, even among the ponies alone, but from what he had seen so far, that was par for the course. Conan spotted the dragon he had seen earlier, and she was looking at him too. Their eyes met for a second before she turned to Starlight and said

"Professor, who's that?" Conan felt a little bit offended at being called 'that', but he let it slide, they were different species after all.

"Oh, he's Conan. he's going to be observing our class today, please welcome him." The students welcomed him, but he did little more than nod. The dragon glared at him.

When class started, Conan forgot about the dragon and watched the play being put on by the students, the story actually happened Pre-Equestria, it was a Romeo and Juliette-esque story about a Pegasus and an Earthpony who were in love, but their parents forbid their union. Unlike Romeo and Juliette however, this story had a happy ending, with the two running away to live together. All in all, the story was very informative for Conan, about such things as pony races and racism problems (the class had an in depth discussion about that seeing as some of them weren't even ponies.) as well as that tattoo thing Conan had noticed earlier, it was called a cutie mark; though, Conan still had no idea what it actually was, he just knew he didn't have one.

After class, the dragon came up to Conan, he had a feeling this would happen, she had been shooting him looks throughout the entirety of class.

"So, who are you?" Wow, she's blunt. Conan thought as he looked at her.

"What do you mean? Starlight told everyone who I was at the beginning of class." he felt like he had to tread more carefully here that other places, this one had a colder eye than the rest of them, well, maybe except for the griffin.

"No, she told everyone your name. That tells us nothing, except that you have a weird name."

"Smolder..." Starlight sounded exasperated, apparently this sort of behavior was common for her.

"I'm aware." Conan said, unfazed by her insult, after all, Conan was a strange name in japan too.

Starlight began to explain who Conan was, or what she knew, which wasn't much. Only that he fell out of the sky and no pony knows him.

"Then why not just ask him?" Smolder said, raising an eyebrow at Conan.

"I have, he's just being vague." Starlight glared at him and he shrugged. She had asked about his family and other ponies he might know in passing, but he was an expert at lying about relationships by now because of the Conan persona, and the questions she had asked had been easy to answer by twisting the truth just a little bit. He hadn't said much, only that he hadn't seen his family in a while, and he didn't know anypony else. Both statements were true.

"Why not take him to the Crusaders? They can talk to anyone! Plus, he has no cutie mark so they would probably jump at the chance." Smolder said helpfully. However, while Starlight fully understood what Smolder was saying, Conan was confused, who were the Crusaders? And what did this have to do with his lack of a cutie mark?

"who're the Crusaders?" he asked, hoping this wasn't another obvious question every**pony** knew the answer to. Just then, the door burst open to reveal a familiar purple pony, (and others), a pony with both wings and a horn. The only other being he had ever seen with both had been the sparkly lady who had dropped him out of the sky. This pony even had the same color scheme and hair (mane) style.

"Twilight!" Starlight called, running over to the purple pony, now Twilight. The two of them turned to look at Conan, who was currently glaring at Twilight.

"So he is awake!" Twilight smiled and trotted over to him. Maybe they are different, after all, the being that had brought him here had glittered like crazy, and had shown no emotion. This pony exhibited neither of these traits, but Conan wasn't going to trust her immediately either.

"Everypony, meet Conan!" Starlight introduced him.

"Is he always like this?" A concerned Twilight asked when she had gotten a good look at the look he was giving her. Starlight also looked concerned, and shook her head. Smolder cleared her throat.

"We were talking about taking him to the Crusaders, unless you found something?"

"Oh, right. We ended up talking to a lot of ponies, but no pony had ever heard of a pony fitting his description, much less knew him." Twilight said, Conan hated being talked about like he wasn't there, but it was something that came with being a child. Especially a child who had just fallen from the sky.

"So, can I take him to the Crusaders?" said a bored Smolder.

"Of course! Sorry about this, Smolder." Starlight said with an apologetic smile.

"Like I asked earlier, who are the Crusaders?" Conan was still glaring at Twilight, for more than one reason now.

"Some ponies who can hopefully help us out!" Smolder sounded a bit mischievous, really, who were these Crusaders? The word Crusader itself made Conan wary, if these ponies were the kind of crusader that had once been on earth, Conan was really in for it. Smolder made her way out of the classroom, motioning for Conan to follow. He sighed and complied, not like he could do much else, and if he actually refused, he had a feeling Starlight would make him go anyway.

When Conan and Smolder were in the hall alone, he thought it might be worthwhile to try to ask some questions, not any that would make it obvious he was oblivious, just some basic ones.

"So, Smolder, why did you decide to come to this school?" He asked. That should be basic enough. Smolder looked at him.

"Because Dragon Lord Ember made me come." Smolder said that like it was something perfectly normal to say. Dragon Lord, huh? That definitely sounded like something to remember. "what about you, why did you drop out of the sky?" she asked, smirking. Conan wished Starlight had not told her this particular bit of info.

"Not like I wanted to." he said truthfully. This made Smolder quirk an eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, a laugh in her voice. She reminded him of Haibara, only Smolder actually said what she was thinking.

"Someone threw me." also truthful, or rather, the being had dropped him.

"Who?" Smolder asked, still sounding playful.

"Dunno." another truth, but Smolder obviously didn't believe him this time.

"You don't know who tossed you into the sky?" Smolder sounded quite skeptical.

"Yup." Conan said with a note of finality. Smolder game him a little frown before pushing open the doors to the school and stepping out into the village. Both entered the busy streets in silence, Smolder lead the way through the winding streets of town to an apple orchard. Conan was glad to see he recognized the fruit, at least something was constant between their worlds. Smolder lead him around back to a little brown tree house with a sort of slanted staircase instead of a ladder. Happy voices of young girls echoed from inside.

Smolder and Conan ascended the step ladder to the door, Smolder knocked how any human would, and the door opened to reveal three ponies around Conan's size, obviously girls. They looked quizzically at smolder and Conan.

"Smolder! Who's this?" a yellow one with a red mane and pink bow asked.

"This is Conan, hang out with him for a bit." Smolder shoved him inside and closed the door. Conan glared at the door before turning to the confused girls. The orange and magenta Pegasus was already getting over it though, and introduced them all.

"Hi! My name is Scootaloo, this is Applebloom, and this is Sweetiebell! AND WE'RE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" all three said the last bit in unison nearly shouting it. It reminded Conan of the way the Detective Boys introduced themselves to people, Conan chuckled in spite of himself at the memory. The Crusaders grinned at him, pleased with his reaction.

"So, what brings you here? Usually if a student needs help, Starlight contacts us before they show up, plus, they usually don't get an escort." the pink purple and white one, Sweetiebell, asked, confused again.

"you're right!" Scootaloo said, realizing it too, while Applebloom nodded.

"So why are you here?" Applebloom asked. Conan shrugged.

"From what Starlight and Smolder were talking about, I think they just want you to talk to me." Conan though interrogate was a better word, but he didn't say it. If the interrogators don't know that they are supposed to be interrogating somebody, you shouldn't tell them. Not that Conan had ever run into a situation where this had happened before.

"Are you a student at the friendship school?" Scootaloo asked, all of them were still confused.

"No." Conan said simply. All three became more confused.

"So, I guess we should just do what Smolder asked." Sweetiebell decided after a pause, the other two nodded.

"So, what do you want to do?" Scootaloo smiled at him

"I don't know anything you can do around here, want to show me something?" Conan asked truthfully. They were reminding him more and more of the Detective boys. Just as Sweetiebell walked past him to the door, she stopped and turned.

"Conan, you don't have a cutie mark!" she said, though it was more of a squeal.

"Wait, really?"

"Let me see!" The other two looked for themselves and gasped in unison.

"OH this is probably part of why Starlight sent him to us!" Sweetiebell said in realization.

"That still doesn't explain the escort or the lack of forewarning though." Scootaloo added. Conan was cursing his tiny amount of knowledge of this world, what exactly was a cutie mark? Why were they so excited that he didn't have one? Was it rare not to, and why did their group name have cutie mark in the name? Conan had many unanswered questions.

"Why don't we go to sugar cube corner first?" Applebloom suggested, unrolling a large, blank scroll while doing so. Conan got more confused.

"But we always start there! Why not try something different to start?" Sweetiebell complained, while retrieving some art supplies from the attic.

"Do you have a better starting place?" Scootaloo said, pinning the paper to the wall. Conan couldn't contain his questions anymore, so he figured he would start with the simplest one.

"Um, what are you doing?" Conan asked hesitantly, the girls were still arguing over various activities, and drawing on the paper. All three turned to look at him at the same time.

"Sorry! We haven't explained yet, we're making a talent chart! Ya know, to help you get your cutie mark!" Applebloom said excitedly. So a cutie mark isn't something you're born with, but something you can get, it sounds like getting it is a good thing. These girls help others get their cutie marks, thats why Smolder had said they would go crazy over me, and they are.

"where do you want to start?" Sweetiebell said, they included him into the circle around the paper as well.

"That first place you mentioned sounds good." Conan said, looking at all the symbols drawn all over the paper. He could see representations of baking, ice skating, sewing, carpentry, potions(?), gardening, several different instruments, and more.

"Sugar cube corner it is!" Scootaloo shouted, Applebloom circled the baking icon, and they dashed outside. Conan followed them, smiling.


	5. Chapter 5

Everypony whirled around to look at who had spoken. To none of their surprise, a smirking draconequus hovered there, an annoying look of knowing on his face.

"Discord." Twilight said, frowning a little.

"When did you get here?" Starlight asked, taking a few steps forward.

"Oh, not long, but long enough to know about your little conundrum!" Discord grinned. Everypony looked at each other warily, you could never tell anything with discord.

"You said you had an idea?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, I don't have an exact idea of my own, but I do know somepony who might!" Discord said. Twilight nodded at him to continue. "The little one's appearance caused quite a bit of chaos when it happened, so it wasn't possible for me to miss it! However, another sort of magic was mixed in with the chaos, a magic you would recognize better than me, probably." Twilight frowned and thought for a moment.

"The magic of friendship? Why?"

"That specific magic is better referee to as 'pure harmony' but very close! It was strange to see such polar opposites in magic work together so smoothly!" Discord grinned again.

"That doesn't answer my question, or your original claim you knew somepony who could help!" Twilight was starting to get frustrated with the chaos spirit.

"So sorry, but think for a second, what other source is there in Equestria that could produce such magic? Seeing as it was almost identical to what the elements would do." Discord didn't sound sorry at all, and this was another thing she found annoying about him, his utter inability to get to the point. Despite her frustrations, she understood, mostly.

"The spirit of harmony? But what would the spirit want with a small colt?" this explained a few things, such as his hostile reaction towards her, the spirit, for whatever reason, had decided to take on Twilight's form. If the spirit did have something to do with Conan being here, that might explain his actions. Especially since the spirit had some odd ways of ensuring peace and harmony.

"I'm certain I have no clue!" Discord trilled, floating higher. "I will want to meet him, of course, but I must take my leave now, call me if anything happens!" Discord vanished with a small noise, leaving the ponies with the new knowledge.

"ya know we have to talk to the spirit now, right?" Applejack was the first to speak.

"you're right, we need more of an explanation, at first I thought he was just a lost colt, but it seems I was wrong." Twilight creased her eyebrows in thought.

"We all thought that." Fluttershy spoke up.

"I'm not sure how we're supposed to talk to the spirit though, it kinda just shows up whenever it feels like it." Starlight said.

"That's true." Twilight started pacing. "I have an ominous feeling about this though, I need answers."

"I know how you feel, I spent all day with him remember?" Starlight smiled and put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, trying to calm the princess down. "Don't worry about it!" Twilight smiled back at her.

"We should try to find the spirit, if nothing else." Rarity said, starting towards the door. The others nodded and followed her. They were headed towards the tree house, the place they were most likely to find the spirit.

Starlight wondered about Conan, so many things about him rubbed her the wrong way, the subtleties in the way he acted, the way he spoke, (when he spoke) and the way he looked at absolutely anything. When Starlight had first seen him, she had thought it was just another day, and another pony who needed help. Now Starlight felt the beginning of something larger, if the spirit itself was involved, things were bigger than she knew.

When the ponies got to the tree house, they were greeted by a group of their students, the young six. The beings were sitting and laughing about various things inside the tree house.

"Headmare Twilight?" Ocelus asked, getting up and flying over.

"Ocelus! Have you seen the spirit?" Twilight trotted up to the changeling. Ocelus gave her an odd look.

"Why would we have seen the spirit?" Galus asked, coming over as well.

"Worth a shot." Twilight sighed.

"Does this have to do with Conan?" Smolder asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Conan, like, the foal that was observing class today?" Sandbar asked, confused.

Twilight looked back at her friends, and Starlight answered.

"Yes, that Conan." she said.

"Why you look for spirit for small pony?" Yona asked.

"Well…" Twilight trailed off, she wasn't sure she wanted to tell them about Conan, especially since she knew so little herself. "It's complicated." was the answer Twilight finally settled on. Yona and the rest of the young six (Excluding Smolder) looked intrigued, and confused; Smolder however smirked, she liked knowing things the others didn't.

"Some… new information was found and we need verification." Twilight said. The young six looked at each other and shrugged. This was probably something that didn't need their attention, well except smolder.

Smolder was scowling. She was curious, this foal had set of her nerves, something that bothered her a lot. Turned out he had fallen from the sky without warning, he wouldn't tell anypony anything (Useful, anyway.), and even the princess and her friends couldn't find out where he had come from. And now, they were asking the **spirit of harmony** itself for help, a clear sign that foal was more than a little unusual, even in the princess's book.

Twilight sighed and started toward the door. "C'mon, we're not going to find anything here." she said, her friends nodded and followed her out the door. Twilight was confused. Even if Conan had come from somewhere else in Equestria, they should be able to find him, they had many high end resources at their hoof tips, if there was anything to be found, they would have found it. The only information they had gotten had come from Discord, which wasn't promising.

"So, what do we do now?" Rainbow dash asked.

"We confirm what we know." Said Starlight.

"What do you mean?" Asked Twilight.

"We go back to where we found him."


	6. Chapter 6

Conan still marveled at the town. This was the third time he had traveled through it, but the mere fact that such a place could exist dumbfounded him. Pegasi flew through the sky, unicorns levitated their shopping, and earth ponies pushed heavy loads around. Other than that, the architecture was something you would never see outside of a historical park on earth, if that.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders paraded in front of Conan, chattering happily away about things Conan didn't understand, Conan joined in whenever they talked to him, but otherwise tried to glean anything he could from their conversation.

"Diamond Tiara asked us to help out with the forgotten fillies banquet tonight, so we have to pick this up tomorrow, after Sugarcube corner, of course." Sweetie Belle smiled at him.

"That's okay." he knew the Crusaders expected him to be sad about it, putting his cutie mark on hold, but he still didn't know why it was so important.

Before long, they reached their destination, the Crusaders didn't even need to tell Conan they had arrived, there was no way anyplace else could be called 'Sugarcube corner'. The entire building looked like a cake with a sugar problem, Conan knew he would never see anyplace remotely like it on earth.

While Conan stood gawking at the building before them, the Crusaders walked right in, Scootaloo almost dragging Conan behind her.

Conan smelled all sorts of sugary confections as soon as they entered. He could see cupcakes stacked on tables, pies in cases, and all kinds of candy strewn about all surfaces. A kind looking pony was standing behind the counter, boxing up a cake. She had a light blue coat, a pink mane resembling frosting, and a cutie mark of three cupcakes. She looked up when they entered and smiled.

"If it isn't the Cutie Mark Crusaders! I'm guessing you want to use the kitchen?" the kind pony's eyes Twinkled.

"Yes please!" the three Crusaders said. They ran behind the counter and through some saloon doors to the kitchen. Conan wasn't sure what he had expected but this wasn't it. The kitchen was homey, it looked nothing like professional kitchens you would find in Japan, or anywhere. This was the sort of kitchen you would find in a normal house, with the odd style choices you find in Equestria.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders knew their way around, and began removing pots, pans, and ingredients needed for whatever they were baking. From the looks of it, Conan guessed they were baking cupcakes.

"Alright Conan, have you ever baked before?" Sweetie Belle turned to face him.

"Once or twice." he replied, his answer was honest, his mom had tried to teach him how to cook, but he had never taken much of an interest. He knew enough cooking to survive, but nothing else.

"That's OK, we'll show you how!" Scootaloo said.

00000000000

It was quite a bit later when Conan, along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders exited the building. After a long time trying to bake with average results, they had an amazing lunch, even if Conan had some trouble figuring out how to actually eat it. The Crusaders had been mildly disappointed when no baking themed mark appeared, but it seemed they were used to this sort of disappointment, so they let it slide easily.

"Sorry Conan, but we gotta go help Diamond Tiara out now, you know how to get back to the school, right?" Applebloom said, the other two already starting to leave. Actually, Conan wasn't sure how to get back. The roads here were too unpredictable, and the route from the orchard to Sugarcube Corner was completely different from that of the school to the orchard.

"Actually, no, I don't." Applebloom smiled, and after calling to the others she was going to be a little late, she walked forward, beckoning for Conan to follow. He didn't complain, and headed after her.

There was no one left in the school when they arrived, classes were over and all the teachers were out somewhere.

"Sorry Conan, but I have to go, you'll be fine by yourself?" Applebloom waited for his okay before galloping out the door, eager to get back to her friends. Conan wondered what he was going to do now, he supposed he should have been more worried about being left alone in an alternate universe he knew nothing about, but he wasn't concerned. He started walking, with no specific destination in mind, and came to the school library. 'this is as good a use of time as any' he thought, and walked over to the basic magic section.

0000000

They stood, breathing heavily, the remains of a broken photograph at their hooves. The haughty face of the mare depicted grinned up at them. They roared in frustration, pacing back and forth in the dimly lit room. The idea had come to them only the day before, and with every passing second, the temptation grew.

It would be so easy! All they had to do was erase her, remove her, and then, she would never bother them again. They eyed the knife laying next to a half prepared salad. Knives looked so much like claws, large claws that could kill somepony. They smiled, but this smile was so far from the ones they'd normally wear, the kind of smile Equestria had never seen before.


End file.
